Dial Square Story – Part 4
The continuation of my Arsenal career storyline. You can find the previous part here.
April 2011
Premier League
Blackburn 0-1 Arsenal
For some reason, this was the first time this season that we actually played in our official yellow/blue away kit. There is a bug in the Dial Square database, but I’ll have to see if it’s still there when we switch to the new away kits next season. Anyways, Walcott made an impressive run to serve Van Persie with a perfect pass after 15 minutes, but once again we failed to score more after an early goal. Cesc had yet another bad game, and I don’t know what to do about this.
Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal
An away game to Chelsea would be the hardest game of the remaining games, with Chelsea desperate to keep up with Man Utd, Tottenham and Man City in the battle for 4th place. After a very boring start, Chelsea scored right before halftime, and after that Chelsea parked the bus to end our unbeaten run after 39 games. Almost a repeat of the invincible season, and a massive improvement over last years performances. Still wasn’t great though, a lot of close 1-0 matches meant we would have to improve on our attacking skills next season.
Arsenal 4-0 Tottenham
Fabianski asked to be put on the transfer list just before the derby against Spurs, so Mannone got his chance in this match. Walcott scored after 2 minutes, and once again we had scored a very early goal, and this would mean that we would have difficulties scoring for the next 90 minutes. This time we continued to dominate though, and Subotic scored in the 30th minute. Chamakh and Nasri made the scoreline 4-0 in the second half, and that was the final score as well.
Sunderland 1-1 Arsenal
Sunderland were out to urt us, and they played a very hard tackling game in order to kick us out of the game. Eventually it meant Sunderland was down one man and one goal after 60 minutes. Unfortunately it also meant Cesc, Nasri and Sagna got injured from bad challenges from the Sunderland brutes, and it also meant Sunderland could claw one back towards the end of the game. Cesc had yet another bad game, and I was seriously thinking about maybe selling him to Barcelona in the summer.
May 2011
Premier League
Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa
Villa was next on our list, and once again we dominated. Cesc had a better game, but came off injured in halftime. Villa didn’t cause any problems at all, and yet another comfortable win.
Liverpool 0-3 Arsenal
Last game of the season, against Liverpool. Once again a quick goal in a couple of minutes, from an awful mistake by Reina. Nasri scored his second goal of the game shortly after, and we were 2-0 up at halftime. Subotic roughed in a third in the 80th minute to make it 3-0, and that concluded the premiership season.
2010/2011 Season Roundup
Premier League
Highlight of the season was our absolute dominance in the premiership, obviously helped by the fact that Chelsea and Man Utd were having poor seasons, but mostly down to the fact that we tightened up our defense in the purchases of Adler and Subotic. Apart from the loss at Stamford Bridge, we were never even close to losing, and we were probably stronger than Wenger’s Invincibles. We ended on 101 points, 24 points ahead of Man City, with only 13 conceded goals.
In other parts of the league, Man City ended second thanks to a very good season from Tevez, who scored 35 premiership goals. Man Utd came 3rd, with Tottenham ending up 4th. This meant Chelsea wouldn’t get Champions League football, and the reason was that none of their goalscorers got going this season. They only scored 50 goals in total.
West Ham, West Bromwich and Middlesbrough got relegated.
Champions League
Not a great season in Europe, with a weak performance in the group stage, and an embarassing 3-0 loss to St Etienne in the knockout stages.
FA Cup
The reserves had an ok run, but lost out to Newcastle in the 4th round, who eventually got to the final.
League Cup
Academy youngsters also had an ok run, beating Stoke and Ipswich, but got drawn against a strong Aston Villa team in the quarterfinals and lost 3-0.
Youth Team
The Academy did great in the U18 Cup and won against Newcastle in the final. In the league they finished 3rd, which was disappointing seeing as how the Arsenal U18′s normally win it.
Other Leagues
Real Madrid and Barcelona battled it out in La Liga as usual, and Real Madrid scored 100 goals to claim first spot, Ronaldo and Higuain scoring half of those goals between them. Inter won the Serie A, while Dortmund won Bundesliga. In France, order was restored and Lyon won the title with Bordeaux second.
Real Madrid also won the Champions League, after a 1-0 win against Palermo, who had reached the final on some luck.
The Team
Even though we dominated the premiership, there were some question marks. We had some embarassing defeats in the Champions League, against Celtic and St Etienne, and the one player who should be the clear star of the team had a very poor season; Cesc Fabregas. He only had a 7.14 overall rating over the entire season, which is unacceptable for a player with these kind of attributes:
In spite of this, he did win the Players’ Player of the Year, and he had 7 goals and 11 assists, which is ok. He might just have had a bad season, and I might have to overhaul his positional instructions in the next season. Last season he had a 7.36 average rating, with 13 goals scored and 6 assists, so at least he upped his assists from last year.
Strengthening the Squad
So with a near perfect record in the premiership, it was evident we had a good enough team to challenge for titles. Looking at our squad, I was confident our defense and its backups were good enough and didn’t need any additions. I had Adler, Clichy, Vermaelen, Subotic and Sagna as first team choices, with Mannone/Szczesny, Gibbs, Djorou, Bartley/Nordtveit and Eboué as backups.
I also felt our attack was good enough, with Chamakh and Van Persie rotating for the central position, and Walcott, Nasri and Wilshere rotating the flanks. Rosicky was turning 30, but I also had Vela who was finally ready to get a chance in the first team as backup for Nasri.
It was clear that the midfield needed some extra personnel. Cesc had a poor season, but on the other hand he should be able to turn out some very good performances. If he has another bad season, I’ll make Barcelonas dreams come true at the end of next season. Song had a good season, but he lacks a quality backup, as the other 6 defensive midfielders at the club aren’t good enough.
The left-hand side midfield position was the one position I was thinking about though, a new partner to Song and Cesc. Maybe just promoting Ramsey to first choice would be enough, but I was leaning towards making a couple of signings in midfield.
2010/2011 Trophy Cabinet
Premier League and Emirates Cup.
Why We Dominated
So why all of a sudden did we totally dominate the premiership, when we ended 3rd last season? There are some key factors here, that could actually be applied to real-life Arsenal.
1. Stability at the back. With the purchase of a good keeper and a more solid partner to Vermaelen, we didn’t make as many mistakes at the back. This made it possible to win even if our attack was having a bad day. Adler isn’t a great keeper, but he’s good enough to offer some form of stability to the team. Subotic isn’t a great defender either, but he’s very different from Vermaelen, with height and strength as his main attributes. This means Vermaelen can be aggressive and pressing, while Subotic is the solid rock behind him.
2. A natural replacement for Van Persie. Last season we only had Bendtner to backup Van Persie, as the rest of the striking options are too short in order to compete in a central role against big and strong premiership defenders. But Bendtner is more of a target man/striker, when Van Persie is a forward in the dutch sense of the word. He comes deep and basically acts as an attacking midfielder for most parts of the game. This didn’t suit Bendtner, but it suited Chamakh. The rotation between them throughout the season meant they were always fresh and fit to play.
3. Very few injuries. Of the preferred starting line-up, 9 of them played more than 33 games each. And the improved defense in Vermaelen, Subotic and Adler played 40+ games each. This created harmony and stability in the first team, and it’s also one of the biggest reasons the real-life Arsenal is struggling.
to be continued…